Israel officially opened its election season onMonday as parliament dissolved itself and scheduled a vote for January,plunging the country into a vicious, three-month political campaign.
Israeli leaders launched harsh attacks on one another duringa long parliamentary debate that preceded the vote to dissolve parliament thatpassed late unanimously late Monday night, setting the parameters for what islikely to follow in the campaign. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted ofhis achievements, while the opposition heckled and insulted him mercilessly.
Netanyahu announced last week that he was calling earlyelections, months ahead of schedule. The immediate reason for the vote is hiscoalition government's inability to pass a budget by a Dec. 31 deadline. Withthe economy slowing, the government would have been forced to make steepcutbacks unpopular with voters.
But after leading a remarkably stable coalition for nearlyfour years, Netanyahu also appears to have sensed that the time is ripe to wina new term. Netanyahu's Likud Party is leading in most opinion polls, and hisopponents remain divided and disorganized.
Parliament approved Netanyahu's proposal for elections onJan. 22. Elections had been scheduled for October 2013.
Yet Netanyahu still faces some areas of vulnerability,including the uncertain economic situation, a failure to advance peace effortswith the Palestinians and his rocky relations with U.S. President Barack Obama.
In an address to parliament ahead of Monday's vote,Netanyahu boasted of a series of accomplishments under his leadership. Heemphasized that Israel's economy grew while most other countries sufferedsetbacks, took credit for the relative decline in Palestinian attacks againstIsraelis, and said he put Iran's nuclear program on the global agenda to thepoint where the country was now under crippling economic sanctions.
"In less than 100 days the people of Israel willdetermine who will lead it," Netanyahu said. "Who will lead itagainst the biggest security challenges we have known since the state wasfounded, who will lead it against the worst financial crisis the world hasknown in the past 80 years."
"All those who belittle the threat of a nuclear Iranare not worthy of leading Israel even one day," he added.
Netanyahu was repeatedly interrupted by shouts and boos byopposition lawmakers.
In a separate speech, opposition leader Shaul Mofazcountered with a blistering attack Netanyahu's shortcomings.
He said that by doing nothing on peace with the Palestiniansand continuing settlement building in the West Bank, Netanyahu was making theareas inseparable and bringing Israel ever closer to being a binational stateevenly divided between Jews and Arabs. Without the West Bank, Jews make up a 75percent majority of Israel.
The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, captured byIsrael in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of a future state. They say continuedJewish settlement in the territory make it impossible to partition the landinto two states. Throughout Netanyahu's term, the Palestinians have refused tonegotiate, saying settlement construction must first be halted. Theinternational community has nearly universally condemned the settlements.
Mofaz also blasted Netanyahu for undermining Israel'srelations with the United States through repeated quibbles with Obama, leavingthe widespread impression that he is supporting Republican challenger MittRomney in the upcoming U.S. elections.
"Where is your responsibility to Israel's fate with itsgreatest and almost only ally, the United States? Why are you aggressively interferingin the democratic elections in the United States? Why? What need was there todo that?" Mofaz asked, as Netanyahu listened impassively.
Opinion polls have forecast that the Likud would win roughly29 seats in the 120-member parliament, making it the largest single party andputting Netanyahu in position to form a new coalition government. The pollspredict the nationalist and religious parties that dominate his currentcoalition will likely control a majority of seats in the next parliament as well.
Netanyahu could be vulnerable if the focus of the campaignveers from diplomatic issues to social ones. The government has come under firefor the growing gap between rich and poor.
The dovish Labor Party has seen its support grow after masssocial protests against the country's high cost of living drew hundreds ofthousands to the streets in the summer of 2011. Labor leader Shelly Yachimovichtends to favor a strong government safety net and is running a campaignprimarily on jobs and the economy.
In a setback for Netanyahu, one of his most popular Cabinetministers announced late Sunday that he was leaving politics. Moshe Kahlon hasbeen the Likud minister most close to working-class voters, and in his role ascommunications minister, has won accolades for taking on Israel's powerfulwireless cartel and forcing them to lower prices by introducing newcompetitors.
Hebrew University political scientist Gayil Talshir saidKahlon's departure could hurt Likud's standing with its base of Mizrahi Jews,those of Middle Eastern descent. Kahlon, the son of Libyan immigrants, grew upin a hardscrabble town and is one of the few Mizrahi politicians in the upperechelons of the Likud.
"For the first time in an election, the economic andsocial issues are going to be on the top of agenda. And Kahlon could havehelped with this, so it's a very, very big loss," she said.
Yachimovich is sure to capitalize on Netanyahu's image as acold advocate of free markets and capitalism. Mofaz, the opposition leader, hasseen his Kadima Party slip badly in the polls, while a new centrist party ledby former TV anchorman Yair Lapid remains something of an unknown. Pressure ison the three to unite into a superparty that could challenge Likud.
Another issue that could hurt Netanyahu is the unresolvedstatus of draft exemptions granted to ultra-Orthodox Jewish males.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ordered the exemptionsto stop and that alternative legislation be drafted. Mofaz even briefly joinedthe government in an attempt to find a solution, to no avail.
Israel's secular majority, which has to serve compulsorymilitary service, resents these exemptions. Secular Israelis are also alarmedby ultra-Orthodox efforts to segregate the sexes in public, their widespreadreliance on state handouts, and a school system that teaches religious studiesbut few skills for the work world.
